Boy dies after refusing transfusion over religion

cat's meow · #1 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 10:05 PM

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Quote:

Boy dies after refusing transfusion over religion
14-year-old Jehovah's Witness thought treatment would make him ‘unclean’

updated 2 hours, 30 minutes ago
SEATTLE - A few hours after a judge ruled that a 14-year-old Jehovah’s Witness sick with leukemia had the right to refuse a blood transfusion that might have helped him, the boy died, a newspaper reported.

Dennis Lindberg died Wednesday night at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, his father, Dennis Lindberg Sr., told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Hospital spokeswoman Teri Thomas said she could not confirm or deny anything about the case at the request of the boy’s legal guardian, his aunt Dianna Mincin.

Earlier Wednesday, Skagit County Superior Court Judge John Meyer had denied a motion by the state to force the boy to have a blood transfusion. The judge said the eighth-grader knew “he’s basically giving himself a death sentence.”

“I don’t believe Dennis’ decision is the result of any coercion. He is mature and understands the consequences of his decision,” the judge said during the hearing. “I don’t think Dennis is trying to commit suicide. This isn’t something Dennis just came upon, and he believes with the transfusion he would be unclean and unworthy.”

Doctors had given Dennis a 70 percent chance of surviving the next five years with the transfusions and other treatment, the judge added.

Doctors diagnosed the boy’s leukemia in early November. They began chemotherapy at Children’s Hospital, but stopped a week ago because his blood count was too low, the Skagit Valley Herald reported. The boy refused the transfusion on religious grounds.

However, his birth parents, Lindberg and Rachel Wherry, who do not have custody and flew from Boise, Idaho, to be at the hearing, believed their son should have had the transfusion and suggested he had been unduly influenced by his aunt, who is also a Jehovah’s Witness.

The aunt has declined to talk about the case.

The boy’s father told the Post-Intelligencer the ruling shocked him but after visiting his son later Wednesday, he decided not to appeal. He said doctors told him Wednesday evening that the boy, unconscious since Tuesday, had likely suffered brain damage.

© 2007 The Associated Press.

ONEWHITEDUCK · #2 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 10:23 PM

Anti-religion Faggot

Lets Talk About Curtains Shall We

Still Dizzy · #3 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 10:24 PM

Another example that Darwin was right!

countryslim · #4 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 10:37 PM

At 14 he knew more than many do at 40... No need to fight fate nor are the Doctors anything other than Humans also.

Medicine has grown with leaps and bounds in the last Century, but Mankind will be always be limited in keeping the Spirit in a Faulty Body...

And if it could be...What type of life could one have if tied to a Machine?

I would rather die..too..

I repect the young man's wishes, and Thanks to the Judge for doing the same..

cat's meow · #5 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryslim

At 14 he knew more than many do at 40... No need to fight fate nor are the Doctors anything other than Humans also.

Medicine has grown with leaps and bounds in the last Century, but Mankind will be always be limited in keeping the Spirit in a Faulty Body...

And if it could be...What type of life could one have if tied to a Machine?

I would rather die..too..

I repect the young man's wishes, and Thanks to the Judge for doing the same..

Uhhh....what?

My GF works for St Jude Cancer center and tells me about what actually happens there, the rates of being cured are WAY UP and this kid had a good chance of being saved.

ONEWHITEDUCK · #6 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 10:59 PM

YOU ARE AS BAD AS HIGFLYER WITH YOUR "PAY ATTENTION TO DEATH" THREADS...... O GREAT IDOLIZED BY YOUR STUDENTS "PROFFESSOR" of death

whats the fascination teach

IT'S TOO FUNNY HOW YOU ACT AND TALK LIKE "DEADSHIT"

:-O

HEE HEE........zoom goes the CAT..........POOF

A DEAD HIT ON DEADSHIT

countryslim · #7 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cat's meow

Uhhh....what?

My GF works for St Jude Cancer center and tells me about what actually happens there, the rates of being cured are WAY UP and this kid had a good chance of being saved.

Saved for what?.. to be stuck with sharp objects and "Transfused" with other Peoples Liquids?

To be on Oprah or Dr. Phil?

His illness is not just a simple Cold, nor Sholud he be subject to experiments trying to find the cure..

a good chance....of being saved..

Hey....You wear his Shoes.. Life is Not Eternal, Nor is Death..

The young Man was Wise beyond his years..

cat's meow · #8 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryslim

Saved for what?.. to be stuck with sharp objects and "Transfused" with other Peoples Liquids?

To be on Oprah or Dr. Phil?

His illness is not just a simple Cold, nor Sholud he be subject to experiments trying to find the cure..

a good chance....of being saved..

Hey....You wear his Shoes.. Life is Not Eternal, Nor is Death..

The young Man was Wise beyond his years..

Are you living in 1890?

This is not a freak show and I am not talking about a common cold either. I have been in the room with the kids who get saved and they go on to live long lives. So your answer is to just give up when your life can be saved?

You get one life here on earth, that is it...and you fight hard for it.

36shadow · #9 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cat's meow

Are you living in 1890?

This is not a freak show and I am not talking about a common cold either. I have been in the room with the kids who get saved and they go on to live long lives. So your answer is to just give up when your life can be saved?

You get one life here on earth, that is it...and you fight hard for it.

See no one is asking you to do so but there are those like this boy and I the same that it is not giving up. Why is it deemed so crazy these days that one can accept death instead of fight it. Ya if I get realy sick I go to the doctor but if I ever get cancer realy bad guess what I will not fight it nor suffer through mans money making torture. I've seen to many go through it and am doing so again right now with my wifes grandfather. Hell the man just stays sick all he does is eat sleep and shit that is not life it is existance to make those around him happy. We have become so greedy that we are even so in death. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Dom1 · #10 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cat's meow

Are you living in 1890?

This is not a freak show and I am not talking about a common cold either. I have been in the room with the kids who get saved and they go on to live long lives. So your answer is to just give up when your life can be saved?

You get one life here on earth, that is it...and you fight hard for it.

I agree with you, and I don't thik a 14 year old boy should have been allowed to even make that decision. If it were someone over 18 I would say it is their right, based on religion, to refuse that treatement if they indeed felt it violated their faith. I don't agree with the decision, but I would respect that person's religion.